The present invention generally pertains to signal communications and is particularly directed to deciding whether an observed received signal, such as a radio communication signal, is a signal of interest (SOI).
Various different attributes of an observed received signal may be processed to decide whether the observed received signal is a signal of interest.
The resources that may be used for making such a decision pertain to data processing and computing, receiver gain, the frequency to which the receiver is tuned and the timing of when the receiver is being tuned to a particular frequency. In some circumstances the time constraints for making such a decision are such that there is a need to optimize the use of such resources while maintaining the probability of accurately making the decision.
When one or more of these resources is limited, it may not be practical to continuously observe the full spectrum of interest; and it may not be practical to continuously process all of the various different attributes of the observed received signal that are typically processed in order to decide whether the observed received signal is a signal of interest. When a network of sensors (such as antenna elements) for observing attributes of the received signal is used, it may not be possible to communicate all of what is observed from each sensor to a computing center, because of the bandwidth limitations of the coupling with the sensors.